My 1 acre lawn seems to be mostly weeds I want to seed my lawn soon and I need help on trying to figure out if I will be able to take care of the weeds on my own or if I should get a professional to do the work. I don't want my husband to come home to a messed up lawn. This is my first lawn and I have no clue what to do. Here are pictures of what I am dealing with.
[img]https://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy354/fcarswell_81/Grass/grass006.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy354/fcarswell_81/Grass/grass004.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i807.photobucket.com/albums/yy354/fcarswell_81/Grass/grass005.jpg[/img]
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
My number one rule for seeding; NOT UNTIL FALL...
It just encourages weeds; [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23678]this thread[/url]explains why...
Lots we can do to get ready for that in the interim...
First, my favorite and most effective lawncare tip ever: cut tall...
3-4 inches is what I do; grass gets big enough to really compete with the weeds and push some more root...
The mix of weeds tells me your soil is about beat; either too many chemicals of just too much growing without putting anything back. I like leaving grass clippings or adding compost back to the lawn to make up for taking the clippings; adds back moisture, humus for biology to live in and nutrients for the grass. Seeding this fall would be much enhanced by a 1/2 inch of compost top dressed in; make sure to work it past the crwons of the gress with the back of a rake...
Rent an overseeder to put in your grass seed in the fall; this increases germination and decreases seed loss to predation by about thirty percent. Be sure to go both directions; north/south and east/west...
Doing your lawn organically decreases mowing by about thirty percent, eliminates the need for additional water in all but the worst of droughts, and eliominates the likelihood of anyone in your houshold getting sick from pesticides. It also gets cheaper as the years go by, while chemicals eventually get your lawn looking like, well, like your lawn and the more money you dump in the worse it gets...
We'll help...
HG
It just encourages weeds; [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23678]this thread[/url]explains why...
Lots we can do to get ready for that in the interim...
First, my favorite and most effective lawncare tip ever: cut tall...
3-4 inches is what I do; grass gets big enough to really compete with the weeds and push some more root...
The mix of weeds tells me your soil is about beat; either too many chemicals of just too much growing without putting anything back. I like leaving grass clippings or adding compost back to the lawn to make up for taking the clippings; adds back moisture, humus for biology to live in and nutrients for the grass. Seeding this fall would be much enhanced by a 1/2 inch of compost top dressed in; make sure to work it past the crwons of the gress with the back of a rake...
Rent an overseeder to put in your grass seed in the fall; this increases germination and decreases seed loss to predation by about thirty percent. Be sure to go both directions; north/south and east/west...
Doing your lawn organically decreases mowing by about thirty percent, eliminates the need for additional water in all but the worst of droughts, and eliominates the likelihood of anyone in your houshold getting sick from pesticides. It also gets cheaper as the years go by, while chemicals eventually get your lawn looking like, well, like your lawn and the more money you dump in the worse it gets...
We'll help...
HG
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Scott, what do you think about corn gluten meal in the meantime, to suppress some weeds and feed the lawn?
Learn to love dandelions! I'm not a big lawn care person, and don't tend to do much to my lawn, but it frequently looks nicer (greener and fuller) than the neighbor's chem lawn. But this time of year it is full of purple violets and yellow dandelions and I think it is gorgeous!
I'm about to move some spring beauties into it, so next year it will have some little pink flowers as well.
Learn to love dandelions! I'm not a big lawn care person, and don't tend to do much to my lawn, but it frequently looks nicer (greener and fuller) than the neighbor's chem lawn. But this time of year it is full of purple violets and yellow dandelions and I think it is gorgeous!
I'm about to move some spring beauties into it, so next year it will have some little pink flowers as well.-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Corn gluten is a pre-emergent, but it is only mildly so; I think the preemergent aspect of corn gluten has been oversold. The University of Iowa, who holds the patent on this "technology" did a study where they determined that you would need 80 lb.s per 1000 sq. feet for complete pre-emergent control. Times 44 for an acre of lawn is about 3500 lb.s; almost two tons. Even bulk wholesale you are talking thousands of dollars, and that's WAY too much nitrogen. Even at the regularly recommended 20 lbs. per 1000 square, this is still an expensive proposition, although now closer to the price of chemical control.
Frankly, an acre of lawn is just too much lawn to take care of, unless you have a soccer team you are boarding, or need grazing range for your herd. Any type of lawn care will carry an expense of cash, or ecological impact, or man hours that is not really sustainable. I'd start looking at ways to shrink that acre down to the lawn your family needs, not the opening creditsd for Dallas
HG
Frankly, an acre of lawn is just too much lawn to take care of, unless you have a soccer team you are boarding, or need grazing range for your herd. Any type of lawn care will carry an expense of cash, or ecological impact, or man hours that is not really sustainable. I'd start looking at ways to shrink that acre down to the lawn your family needs, not the opening creditsd for Dallas
HG
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Which weeds are you talking about ranman?
Clover actually adds food for lawns. Dandelions bring subsoil nutrition to the surface where lawn can get at it. Plants use very little soil nutrition all in all, in most cases only about 2% of the plants make-up comes from soil; the majority of most plants cames from the carbon and nitrogen in the air and the sugars they develop from photosynthesis...
Weeds can actually be helpful to other plants in many cases; it's really us that have the hatred of "weeds". Yes in soome cases they can compete, especially with row crops and others raised without weed contact, but grass isn't that plant at all. Grass is the piggy nitrogen feeder that outcompetes other plants in most cases. Until we try to turn it into lawn and do horrible things to it like cut it way too short, or kill all the biology underneath that HAS been feeding it until we dump chemicals on it...
Look at a natural grassland and you will see tons of "weeds" cohabitating quite nicely with grass. You will see far more insect and animal life using these areas than on any lawn. Our lawns are monocultures because WE like it, not because Nature or grass does...
HG
Clover actually adds food for lawns. Dandelions bring subsoil nutrition to the surface where lawn can get at it. Plants use very little soil nutrition all in all, in most cases only about 2% of the plants make-up comes from soil; the majority of most plants cames from the carbon and nitrogen in the air and the sugars they develop from photosynthesis...
Weeds can actually be helpful to other plants in many cases; it's really us that have the hatred of "weeds". Yes in soome cases they can compete, especially with row crops and others raised without weed contact, but grass isn't that plant at all. Grass is the piggy nitrogen feeder that outcompetes other plants in most cases. Until we try to turn it into lawn and do horrible things to it like cut it way too short, or kill all the biology underneath that HAS been feeding it until we dump chemicals on it...
Look at a natural grassland and you will see tons of "weeds" cohabitating quite nicely with grass. You will see far more insect and animal life using these areas than on any lawn. Our lawns are monocultures because WE like it, not because Nature or grass does...
HG
Hello all! I have been lurking on this forum for few weeks now, and this thread has inspired me to finally register and ask a few additional questions.
HG, your comments have been greatly appreciated, and I hope you can shed some more lights on additional questions I have. Our lawn have a lot of weeds and this other type of vegetation, which I assume to be a type of weed. I have been using the weed hound non-stop for a week straight, and filled up our yard waste container days before they are to be picked up. Base on your recommendation (and my understanding), I should continue to do this until fall and overseed the entire lawn. In the meantime, is there anything else I should be doing to reduce the growth of new weeds, and can you provide a simple schedule between now and fall overseeding?
Best regards!
Go Huskies!
HG, your comments have been greatly appreciated, and I hope you can shed some more lights on additional questions I have. Our lawn have a lot of weeds and this other type of vegetation, which I assume to be a type of weed. I have been using the weed hound non-stop for a week straight, and filled up our yard waste container days before they are to be picked up. Base on your recommendation (and my understanding), I should continue to do this until fall and overseed the entire lawn. In the meantime, is there anything else I should be doing to reduce the growth of new weeds, and can you provide a simple schedule between now and fall overseeding?
Best regards!
Go Huskies!
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT
Corn gluten appplied like NOW can be of some benefit in keeping down the weeds but as noted above, this is not 100 percent. Still, you would like to get some nitrogen down and thats a good one...
The high cut is your best organic defense against weeds. The higher the better; as tall as you can stand. The differences in root mass, photosynthesis, tillering, etc. are all greatly enhanced by letting grass get taller (I mean factor of ten enhanced). This allows grass to outcompete weeds. A mulching blade and returning the clippings directly to the soil is a good fertilizer (about 2 lbs. per 1000sq.ft) and builds humus too...
Keep it up with the Weed Hound. Did my front yesterday (just dandelions). About an hour and I got the grand majority; still some antennaria I'll get later, but I am acceptable to the neighborhood... get another and get the wife to join you, teach the neighborhood kids to do it and pay a buck a pound; there are variations on the theme, but hand removal remains a good strategy and out greenest control...
Really that's about all I'll do between now and fall. You could add in another fert, but if you are returning clippings and cornglutening you are already around 6.5 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft., which is sufficient for most grasses except bluegrass, which I hate anyway; it's a sissy...). A compost tea or top dress is good just about anytime to start rebuilding soil biology (I have not ever seen a lawn in optimal biological condition without them), but the topdress is actually easiest to do with the overseeding (my favorite method is to find a company with a mulch/soil blower and have them blow in the compost with the seed in the stream; pricey but SO simple and great results). But you can just have a load of compost dumped and wheel barrow it about, spreading the piles as you go. Use the back of a lawn rake to work it down past the crowns of the grass.
This gets easier every year with organics; any time spent now has dividends later. And you get to sleep knowing your children, pets and planet are safer because of you. That's worth a great deal to me...
HG
The high cut is your best organic defense against weeds. The higher the better; as tall as you can stand. The differences in root mass, photosynthesis, tillering, etc. are all greatly enhanced by letting grass get taller (I mean factor of ten enhanced). This allows grass to outcompete weeds. A mulching blade and returning the clippings directly to the soil is a good fertilizer (about 2 lbs. per 1000sq.ft) and builds humus too...
Keep it up with the Weed Hound. Did my front yesterday (just dandelions). About an hour and I got the grand majority; still some antennaria I'll get later, but I am acceptable to the neighborhood... get another and get the wife to join you, teach the neighborhood kids to do it and pay a buck a pound; there are variations on the theme, but hand removal remains a good strategy and out greenest control...
Really that's about all I'll do between now and fall. You could add in another fert, but if you are returning clippings and cornglutening you are already around 6.5 lbs. per 1000 sq. ft., which is sufficient for most grasses except bluegrass, which I hate anyway; it's a sissy...). A compost tea or top dress is good just about anytime to start rebuilding soil biology (I have not ever seen a lawn in optimal biological condition without them), but the topdress is actually easiest to do with the overseeding (my favorite method is to find a company with a mulch/soil blower and have them blow in the compost with the seed in the stream; pricey but SO simple and great results). But you can just have a load of compost dumped and wheel barrow it about, spreading the piles as you go. Use the back of a lawn rake to work it down past the crowns of the grass.
This gets easier every year with organics; any time spent now has dividends later. And you get to sleep knowing your children, pets and planet are safer because of you. That's worth a great deal to me...
HG
Thank you HG. Corn gluten sure is expensive, I went and purchased a $35 bag this morning and it's already gone...
Did some more weed whacking using the hound, and I'll continue to do so until seeding time. One more question regarding the empty spots where I have removed the weeds, should I just leave it empty or is there something I should do?
Did some more weed whacking using the hound, and I'll continue to do so until seeding time. One more question regarding the empty spots where I have removed the weeds, should I just leave it empty or is there something I should do?
-
The Helpful Gardener
- Mod
- Posts: 7491
- Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:17 pm
- Location: Colchester, CT